


No Secrets

by quantum1342



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types, No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 15:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantum1342/pseuds/quantum1342
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shion has been going somewhere during the day. And Nezumi is going to find out where.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Secrets

“You’re late.”

“Sorry. I took the long way home from work today.” Shion could see that Nezumi didn’t quite believe this.

“Really?”

“Well, yeah…”

“And what does this ‘long way’ of yours entail?”

Shion laughed nervously. “Well, okay. A large part of it involved getting…” He took a breath. “Hopelessly lost.”

“Hm. Is that so? I must say, you’ve gotten better at lying to me.”

“What do you mean? I’m not ly―”

“I went to your work today.” Nezumi paused, waiting for the words to take their full effect. “You weren’t there.”

“I… I had to run some errands for the boss.”

“Did you now? You know, I asked you boss and co-workers, and they all said the same thing. The exact same thing. But when I asked one of the regular customers, she said she hadn’t seen you in a while. Were you ‘running errands’ all those other times, too?”

“Nezumi…”

“Where have you been going?”

Shion sighed. He didn’t want… Nezumi didn’t need to know. Not yet. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s fine, not really a big deal…”

“If its not a big deal, then why don’t you tell me?”

“I…” Shion stared at his feet. He had intended to wait as long as possible before telling Nezumi, but now he couldn’t really see a way out of it. He looked up, but before he could even draw breath to begin explaining, the clock caught his eye. Saved, he thought. “You’re late,” he said.

“What?” Nezumi turned and looked at the clock. _Shit_ , he thought. _I am. The manager’s gonna kill me_. But still, Shion must have been really desperate to need to use that particular tactic. Saved by the bell. “This isn’t just going to go away, you know. You’re telling me as soon as I get home.”

Shion nodded, absently. He was completely distracted by something, and didn’t even seem to notice Nezumi leave.

The sound of the door slamming shut broke Shion out of his thoughts. Hamlet squeaked from the bookshelf. “Sorry, but I can’t read for you,” Shion said. “Early bed tonight, I think.”

 

Nezumi woke up early the next morning. Shion had been asleep when he got home last night; he must really have wanted to avoid talking about this. The white-haired boy would try to get up early and beat him out of the apartment, he knew. Nezumi would just have to get up sooner.

Shion had no intention of telling him this… whatever it is. Nezumi knew that. If Shion was going to tell him, he would have when Nezumi pressured him last night. Come to think of it, Shion had been acting pretty weird lately. Well, weirder. He spaced out more, seemed more distant. As much as Nezumi didn’t want to admit it, it was worrying.

He was going to tail Shion today. If the other boy wouldn’t tell him, he would just have to find out for himself.

So he pretended to be asleep when Shion woke up. And when Shion walked out the door, Nezumi waited, and then followed him out.

Shion walked to work, his hair blowing in the chill morning air. It was late summer, so it would warm up, but now the wind made it a bit nippy. The way he liked it. The cold, the chill, it was proof that he was alive.

He had left early, so he took a more convoluted path through the city to get to work. Even so, he still got there early. His boss greeted him as he walked through the door.

“Morning, Shion. You’re going to get sick if you keep going out like that.”

“It’s fine.” said Shion flatly. He then went over and started doing work-type things.

“He came here while you were out yesterday,” said the boss. “I told him you were doing stuff for me, like you asked.”

“Thank you. Would you mind if I asked you to keep doing that?”

Not at all. But I’m afraid that one of the clients already―”

“I know,” said Shion, cutting him off. “He told me.” Shion finished with what he was doing. “Would you mind opening by yourself? I’d like to go early today.”

“Not a problem.”

“Thank you.” Shion turned to leave. When he got to the door, the boss stopped him.

“Shion.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Keeping this from him?”

Shion paused, his hand hovering in the air above the door handle. “… No.” Then he left.

 _Keep what from me?_ thought Nezumi. _What the hell is going on here? Only one way to find out I suppose…_ as he moved to follow Shion.

 

Shion moved quickly to his destination. He let bad about leaving his boss to open the stir by himself, but he had to go at some point today, and he wanted to be there in the afternoon in case Nezumi came.

He ducked though the automatic sliding doors and was in the waiting room of a building that seemed very… No.6. Not that it was a slaughter house, just the color scheme and the futuristic feel.

The receptionist looked up. She seemed to recognize Shion. “You’re here early today,” she noted.

“Yeah.” Shion nodded. “He was asking about me at work so I want to be there this afternoon.”

A nurse came out from some room. “Even so,” she said, “consistency is important. You need to come here at the same time every day, or else it won’t be as effective. You, of all people, should know that.”

“I do, it’s just…”

She sighed. “Well, come on back, then.” He nodded and followed her.

When they had disappeared, Nezumi moved from the window through which he had been reading everybody’s lips to the front and strode toward the automatic doors. They wooshed open to admit him. _I will_ never _get used to that. I don’t know who was lazy enough to feel the need to invent doors like that. Ridiculous. Regular doors work just fine, people!_ Of course, all of the mental babbling was just to cover up his real thoughts. To try and distract him from his realization of what this building really was.

A hospital.

And Shion seemed to be a regular here. They really need to replace those damn sliding windows with some real doors.

He walked into the reception area. The young receptionist looked up at him from her desk. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah.” Nezumi hadn’t really planned what he would do next, but he wanted to find out about Shion. But how…? He took a chance. “Karan sent me to find out how Shion was doing.”

“Is that right…? Karan usually comes herself.”

“She trusts me.”

“Well…” It occurred to him that the receptionist might not know anything. So plan B…

“Okay,” she said, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Tell her that as far as I know, there have been no changes. Anything more specific and she’ll have to come in person, I’m afraid.”

“Sure.” _Well_ that _didn’t work…_ “Um, could you tell me exactly what’s wrong with him?” Nezumi asked.

She was so distracted watching his pretty face that she almost told him. “Well, he’s… Wait, didn’t Karan tell you?”

“Not all the details, no.”

“But you said she trusted you…”

 _Shit. Time for plan C._ He treated her to his best smile. “She does. Really. Do you think I could go back there?” he asked, nodding to the hallway where the nurse had taken Shion.

“Well…”

“I won’t hurt anybody or anything. I just wanna look.”

That smile did her in. How could she not do everything that this man asked of her? “Okay, but don’t spend to long, and don’t touch anything.”

“I won’t!” He said it a lot more cheerily than he felt. He turned and walked towards the hallway. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. He wasn’t completely sure that he wanted to know, now. But he had to. He walked down the hallway and found the door to the room that Shion was in. The door had a glass face, but was frosted so he couldn’t see inside. But he could hear. He could hear Shion’s voice, and that’s how he knew that that room was his.

“Okay. You’re done for today,” said the doctor. “Try to come back at your normal time tomorrow, unless you want to switch to the morning…”

“No, I’ll be here the normal time. It’s just for today.”

“Yeah.” Shion must have already told the doctor why he was early today.

“So have you got anywhere?”

“Nothing since yesterday, I’m afraid.”

“Oh. So… How long do I have, as of now?”

Papers shuffled. Presumably, that was the doctor checking his charts. “About four months.”

Silence for a moment.

“How much do I owe you for today?” Shion asked quietly, and Nezumi could hear him going through his pockets for his money.

“Shion, you don’t need to keep paying me. I am willing to give you this service―”

“No! I mean, thank you, but I don’t want all of this charity. You’re spending all this money on research for me. If anything, I should have to pay more than your normal clients!”

“I admire you, Shion,” said the doctor. “If I had been like that when I was your age… But I am serious. I don’t want you to have to pay for all this. You shouldn’t have to work in your state. Just stay home and―”

“No!” The sound of furniture falling over. Shion must have stood up, knocking his chair backwards. He was yelling his head off. “I want to keep working! I want to pay you! I don’t just want to sit around at home feeling sorry for myself! That’s not how you _live_!”

For some reason, this reminded Nezumi of a few nights ago. He and Shion had been just sitting on the couch in their apartment, reading. Shion had been leaning against him. Nezumi had looked up from his book, and saw Shion was just staring at him.

“What?” He’d asked. “What are you smiling at me like that for?”

Shion had started. He had probably been lost in thought or something. “Oh, no real reason,” he’d said.

“So give me a not-real one,” Nezumi had said.

“It’s nothing, really. It’s just… I dunno. I’m here with you, feeling your warmth and the cold air… I can feel you and hear you and see you… It’s proof that I’m alive.” Then he had wriggled closer to Nezumi and buried his face Nezumi’s shoulder. “I’m glad I’m with you,” he had murmured, starting to drift off to sleep. “I’m glad that I’m… alive…” And he had fallen asleep on Nezumi’s shoulder.

Shion started yelling again, shattering the memory. “I’ve only got four months to live, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna waste them!”

Nezumi’s world was spinning. Four months? Shion would die in four months? No, that couldn’t be. There’s no way. Nezumi staggered, his back against the wall, then slid down. He was sitting on his heels, back against the wall. Only one thought was in his mind. _No. No. Nonononono… No! He can’t… No!_

“…orry. I just…”

“It’s okay, I understand. You are entitled to outbursts with what you are going through.”

“Yeah.” Shion sighed. He was upset about freaking out like that. He hadn’t meant to get so carried away, but he was just… He sighed, and then picked up the chair he had knocked over. “Anyway. I should get back to work.”

“Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Shion nodded. He didn’t notice a dark shape on the other side of the frosted glass door. He threw it open and almost walked into the person standing there. “Oh! Sorry…” he started, and then saw who it was.

“N-Nezumi…” Nezumi was wearing an expression he had never seen before. For the first time, standing face-to-face with him gave Shion chills, and he understood at that moment why Inukashi thought Nezumi was a devil. Now Shion felt it too. Nezumi was looking at him coldly and expressionlessly, but there were lines on his face. Tears? Even so, he was intimidating.

“Why?” Nezumi whispered.

“I…” Shion didn’t know what to say.

“WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!?!?” Nezumi was yelling louder than Shion had ever heard before.

“I just… I didn’t want anything to change.” Shion’s voice seemed so small in comparison.

“What the fuck kind of excuse is that!?” Nezumi snarled.

“I… I didn’t want you to see me any differently. I didn’t want you to treat me any differently and I didn’t want for you to have to bear this burden as well.”

“But that isn’t your decision! You don’t get to decide my burdens!”

“I know, I know. It’s just, I want to keep living like there’s nothing wrong, like normal.”

There was no response. They just stood there. Shion couldn’t bring himself make eye contact.

Eventually Nezumi broke the silence. “When were you planning on telling me this?” He started quietly, and got more and more worked up as he spoke. “Or were you not planning to tell me at all? How was it going to happen? I was just going to come home one day and see Karan crying ‘cause you were dead? Would I even get a chance to say goodbye?”

“No… You would… I just…”

“What about your promise? Didn’t you promise that you’d never keep shit like this from me again?”

“I’m sorry. I was going to tell you, I was… But I didn’t want to spend the time I have left being overprotected. I didn’t want for you to think of me dying every time you see me.”

“No, what you don’t want is to see me thinking that.”

“Yeah, maybe that too.”

They lapsed back into silence, and the doctor thought this a good time to interject. “We are working on a cure. This is something we have never seen before, but we are learning more and more about it every day. The time frame I gave is using out current treatment, but it is possible that in that time, we may be able to find a more permanent cure.”

Nezumi shook his head. He couldn’t believe this. “What’s…” He hesitated. Did he want to know? Yeah. “What’s wrong with you?”

“When I survived the parasite bee, it altered my genetic code, giving me the appearance that I have now. But it didn’t stop there. It took some time for the changes to accumulate because they were pretty minute, but now my DNA is highly mutateable and if I wasn’t getting all of these treatments, it would have already completely degraded. It’s a sort of genetic disorder.” He stopped, seeing Nezumi’s face. This expression was new to him as well. Nezumi only remembered feeling a little bit like this once. When Shion had given him that goodbye kiss. But this was worse than then.

“I’m sorry, Nezumi,” said Shion. “Really. I’m so sorry.”

Wordlessly, Nezumi put his arms around Shion and held him tightly. He felt Shion’s breathing, his warmth. _It’s proof that I’m alive,_ Shion had said before. The boy might die soon, sooner than Nezumi ever could have imagined, but now, Shion was alive and breathing in his arms. Proof that he was alive.

And as the doctor had said, there was still hope. As long as Shion was alive, it didn’t matter. They’d faced worse odds. As long as they were together, they’d find a way through. Nezumi decided right then that Shion would live. And once Nezumi decided something, it was damn near impossible to change it.


End file.
